


Rain

by FloreatCastellum



Series: Slice of Life One-Shots [30]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24127312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FloreatCastellum/pseuds/FloreatCastellum
Summary: Teddy and Harry walk through the rain.
Series: Slice of Life One-Shots [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1344409
Comments: 20
Kudos: 262





	Rain

It was pouring with rain, but Teddy didn’t mind, because the hood of his yellow raincoat being up meant he could have his hair whatever colour he pleased beneath it, and his matching wellington boots were excellent for jumping in puddles.

Harry had an umbrella that he could have gone beneath, but Teddy liked to run a little ahead, jumping in each puddle, watching the spray, enjoying the splash, marvelling in the little bounces and ripples.

‘Ted,’ Harry called, in his low, warning voice. That meant he had gone too far.

Rather than steam ahead like he planned, he stood in his puddle and stamped his feet. It was a good word, puddle. It sounded warm and cosy to say, even though the thing it meant was not at all warm or cosy.

He waited until Harry had reached him, and turned to him, beaming. ‘I love puddles.’

Harry smiled at him, and held out his free hand. ‘This way now.’

Teddy took it, but he swung outwards as they walked, letting Harry’s strength support him, or occasionally kicking his feet so arches of water sprayed around them.

They went up a little hill, which wasn’t nice, because the angle meant the rain was hitting their faces, but Harry gave a very secret little flick of his wand and suddenly it was as though a barrier was in front of them.

‘When I go to Hogwarts, will I learn to do that?’

‘Of course.’

‘Will I learn to do the opposite too?’

‘The opposite?’

‘I want to make it rain to make puddles.’

‘Ah, I see. Yes, I think you’ll be learning to do that too.’

They reached a little kissing gate, and Teddy immediately dropped Harry’s hand and ran towards it, and pushed through - these gates were funny because you could only get through one at a time, and grown ups had to squish themselves against the fence for them to be able to get through properly. There were other conditions too, as Teddy had been reliably informed on walks down to the Burrow from his godfather’s house. ‘Ginny says you have to kiss at these gates or they don’t work!’ he shouted, turning at Harry and peering at him through the gate.

Harry smiled at him, though he looked like he was about to laugh. ‘She does say that, doesn’t she?’

‘Mhmm.’

Harry bent over the gate and even through his raincoat, Teddy felt a firm kiss planted on the crown of his head.

‘OK,’ he told him. ‘You’re allowed through now.’

‘Thank you.’

So then Teddy left Harry to get through the gate himself, running ahead into the churchyard. There weren’t any puddles here, because the path up to the church was all stony and a little bit up hill, and where all the graves were had grass or mud beneath. But Teddy liked to look at all the graves, and see how old some of them looked - he wasn’t very good at reading yet, but some names he could work out, and he always liked to have a go.

Some of the graves had little pictures on too, which Teddy always liked. One of his favourites was a gravestone that had a little fish etched into the corner, and last time they had been here, Harry had said perhaps it was because the person liked fishing. Another grave had a horseshoe on, so perhaps the person liked horseriding, and some of the really old ones were more like big boxes off the ground with carved people lying on top, but you couldn’t see much of the detail on them anymore because, Harry said, it had been such a long time and eventually even tiny rain drops wore the stone down until it was smooth.

Teddy couldn’t really understand that, because as he held his hand out, the drops that his his palm did fall quite hard, but not hard enough to hurt stone, he didn’t think.

As they got closer to the place they needed to be, Teddy hurried back and held onto Harry’s hand again. Harry squeezed back a little.

They went through the rows until they reached the usual spot, where a white gravestone was. This, Teddy knew, was where Harry’s parents were, just like the graveyard he went to with Nana (and sometimes Harry came too) to see where his parents were.

Harry didn’t say anything - he never did, though sometimes Nana did. But he crouched down so he was level with Teddy, and he conjured up lilies, except they were the colour of Teddy’s raincoat. Teddy thought they looked like gold against the damp, dark ground. He watched as Harry placed them, his hand lingering on the ground for a few moments.

Teddy looked at the gravestone, his eyes tracing the letters and numbers. He definitely couldn’t read it all, it was much too hard, but he wanted to show Harry that he was getting better at sounding things out.

‘Jam-ees,’ Teddy read, squinting.

‘James,’ corrected Harry.

‘Like the new baby’s name!’

‘That’s right. I came to let them know.’

‘Do you think they like him as much as we do?’ Teddy asked him.

Harry looked at him sideways, a little smile playing around his lips. ‘I should hope so. Assuming you like him, Ted.’

‘I do, a lot.’

‘Good.’ They were quiet for a little while, just the tapping of the rain against the umbrella, like little fingerprints drumming. ‘Can you read the rest?’ Harry asked.

‘No.’

‘Give it a try.’

‘Well that one’s Potter.’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

Teddy knew the numbers were for birthdays and when they died, but they meant very little to him, so he skipped them. ‘Luh… l…’ His tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth, willing the word to make sense.

‘Lih…’ prompted Harry.

‘Lih…’ He looked at the next two, an l and a y, like the end of ‘happily’. And there was an ‘i’ there too. ‘Li-ly.’

‘Very good,’ said Harry, grinning at him. ‘I won’t make you do the sentence, that’s a hard one.’

‘What does it say?’

‘The last enemy that shall be defeated is death,’ Harry read for him.

‘That is hard,’ Teddy agreed, and Harry laughed.

‘It is.’

Teddy looked at him. ‘Can I put some flowers on too?’

Harry’s eyebrows raised. ‘Yes, of course you may. What would you like to lay down?’

‘Blue ones.’

‘Blue ones?’ said Harry grandly, grinning. ‘Hmm…’ From his wand burst a bunch of little blue flowers, lots of them, all squished together against green, with tiny, pointy little petals and smiley little yellow centres. ‘These all right?’ Harry asked.

‘Yes,’ said Teddy, catching them and laying them down gently.

Then Harry straightened up, and took Teddy’s hand, and they started to walk back together. ‘Do you miss your mummy and daddy?’ Teddy asked him. He had asked him this before, and the answer was the same, and so was Teddy’s reply, but he liked to hear it.

‘Yes, sometimes. Do you miss yours?’

‘Yes, ‘cept I didn’t know them.’

‘That’s OK, you can still miss them.’

‘Yes - Nana left daisies last time we went to see my mum and dad, because she said they were Mummy’s favourite. But they weren’t normal ones, they were guh… erm…’

‘Gerbera?’

‘Yes.’

‘Yes, I suppose that makes sense for your mum.’

‘I hope she liked them anyway.’

‘I’m sure.’

They went back through the kissing gate, but this time Teddy squealed as Harry lifted him, planted a big kiss on his cheek, and swung him over the fence.


End file.
